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Easy Mod Podge Canister

April 11, 2012 7 Comments

As I went to work on my post for the Ultimate Blog Party that’s happening later this week, I added a collage photo which included a picture of this canister, BUT when I went to find a link to the post where I shared the canister, I didn’t find it. WHAT? That’s weird! I have the pictures of the canister filed under “Projects Already Posted.”  Could I have possibly made a mistake and mis-filed it, thinking I’d posted it, when I hadn’t?  I must be getting old! Haha!

So anyway here is a sort of  impromptu tutorial for this mod podge canister!

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Filed Under: crafts, organizing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Craft Organizing Ideas

January 13, 2012 11 Comments

 


Kids Art Studio eclectic kids
 

 

Have you visited Houzz? It’s a place where design experts share off their portfolios in design, decor, and remodels, and it’s a great place for homeowners and design enthusiasts to go look for designers in their area or look for ideas and products for their own interior design.

If you’re thinking of starting a new home decor project, or if you just like looking at other people’s photos and ideas, you can sign up at the site, and add your favorite photos to your own idea book so that you can come back and look at them any time!

They have design ideas for every room in the house as well as the exterior, but I decided to check out their ideas for craft organizing!

I’m always dreaming of new ways to organize and store my jewelry and craft making supplies and Houzz has ideas ranging from the most simple and “shoe string” budget ideas to the more elaborate and pricey.

Rectangle Vinyl Chalkboard Labels by Bradens Grace modern accessories and decor
For an example of the simple, I love these jars featuring chalk board labels. They’re simple and cute. (And chalk board stuff is very popular right now!)

 

 

Cubby Organizer - Weathered White eclectic bookcases cabinets and computer armoires
 

I also love this cubby organizer. I like the idea of using different slots for you items.  This is also great for someone like me because it goes up on the wall. And I also love the vintage appeal!

Craft station with rolling toolbox contemporary home office
And here’s another wall organizer. I love how versatile this rack is! As you can see she has a place for everything from spools of ribbon to scissors, paint brushes, and even jars filled with supplies! Printing labels on rhino label rolls can give everything a specific place to be kept too!

 

Closet Offices / Becky Harris eclectic home office
And here’s a great idea for turning a walk in closet  into a craft storage haven.

 

garden room eclectic home office

And here’s a great work space! Doesn’t it look cozy?  I would love to have my desk surrounded by all these great organizers! I also love her little corner shelf that’s filled with rubber stamps!

 

Home Office traditional home office
And I just love this room! It’s looks so chic and very clean, especially for a craft room! I also love the colors and the great storage options.

 

Den / Home office. eclectic home office
 And another great craft room.  I would love to have a craft wall like this one. Everything looks so neat,and I love the how they used the black and white with the bold yellow here.
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Filed Under: crafts, organizing

Getting Organized: Spice Racks

January 6, 2012 2 Comments

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A new year is the perfect time to get organized! At the start of the new year, I always like to reorganize my cabinets.  To get started, it helps to have organizers such as kitchen spice racks.



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SpiceRackSource  has a variety of spice racks to fit everyone’s diverse organizing styles. I have a “lazy suzie”  style of spice rack like the one above. It holds a lot of spices without taking up a lot of room, and it rotates so that you can easily find everything your looking for without shuffling bottles and jars.

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I also love this spice rack with pull out trays for all your spices. And unlike others that I’ve seen of this type, this one also has a pull out tray for measuring spoons and cups! Very convenient.

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Finally I wanted to highlight this “ferris wheel” spice rack. I love this one for its rotating feature too, and I think I think it would be a great alternative to the lazy suzie style.


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Disclsoure: This is a paid post. The opinions are my own.
Filed Under: organizing

Free Printable Blog Planners and 2012 Calendars

January 4, 2012 11 Comments

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My most popular post in 2011 was my Free Fall Printables post. I really enjoy finding and sharing free printables and look forward to sharing more of these in 2012.  To start the year off,  today I’ve got a collection of printable blog planners and 2012 calendars for you!

If your New Year’s resolution is to get better organized with your blogging, or just to get organized in general, you’ll love these freebies!

As always, the links to the place where you can actually download these can be found beneath the photo.

Let’s start with some Blog Planners!

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Last year I got in to the habit of writing my posts in to a monthly calendar, and the other day I printed out this blog organizer from Mommy Words. I hope it will help me to plan posts and plan for other aspects of blogging too! 

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I also liked the style of this planner from Oh The Lovely Things. It’s stylish and chic, and it gives you a little more room for your notes. 

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And I think some of you may like this planner from The Peaceful Mom too.  It includes an area called “Purpose,” which is great for those of you who blog on a particular topic from week to week or month to month. And it also has spaces for you to do immediate, short term, and long term planning.
Now for some 2012 Calendars!

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I’m always finding great stuff at Tom Kat Studio. I actually printed these, and I put them into my “blogging binder” for the purposes of scheduling my posts.  They’re very simple. (ie – you don’t have to use all  your ink to print them).  And they look good.

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And here’s a calendar that’s a little more elaborate from Thankfully Thrifty.  It’s very attractive and would be great for your desk or wall. And I think this design will appeal to a lot of people.

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And if you’re looking for something a little more fun and cutesy, you’ll love this 2012 calendar from Anything But Perfect. So far she just has January through May available, but these are totally adorable! I printed out January the other day and posted it on my fridge. I’ll be using it to write in appointments, due dates for bills, and just as a reference for everyday life.
Hope you enjoyed! Don’t forget to leave a comment to thank the site owners if you should go over and download any of these! Happy Organizing!

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I’m linking up at Tidy Mom and these parties.
Filed Under: Freebie, organizing, Printables

Fun Holiday Ideas with Pringles

December 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

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I always love thinking of new ways to use and reuse things, especially containers!  Instead of throwing away  that Pringles can after the chips are gone, consider reusing it!  There’s so many possibilities for those little cylinders!

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For starters, consider covering the can with a little wrapping paper and then fill it with candy! You could even use the cans as a gift box for your own home made cookies, candies, and  treats!

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The cans also make great storage containers for your ribbon, scissors, and other gift wrapping supplies. Or use them to store your crafting supplies!

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And of course you can also use them to wrap packages.  Or use them to craft your own holiday centerpiece!

Can you think of some other fun things to do with these cans?

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Disclosure: Photos, information and product samples were provided to me by Pringles. The opinions are my own.

I’m linking up at Tidy Mom and these parties.
Filed Under: Christmas, crafts, organizing

Does Your Kitchen Look Like a Post-It Commercial? Declutter Your Fridge and Bulletin Boards Today!

February 17, 2010 6 Comments
Do you guys post stuff on your fridge? Or do you have bulletin board in your kitchen for posting important items? I’ve always tried to keep our refrigerator neat and clutter-free, just posting something on it here and there. On the side of our fridge, I posted a few “important coupons” and some diabetes-related stuff for my husband who was just diagnosed back in November. Then all of a sudden…Boom! The refrigerator starts looking like a cluttered desk! A couple of weeks ago I was doing a general decluttering in the house, and I decided that this just wasn’t working:
I removed all the papers, coupons, and some of the magnets, leaving my little Menu Planner Board, a couple of magnetic notepads, and just a couple of cute magnets behind on the fridge. Much better!
So where did all the papers go?? They were moved to a secret location known only to a select few. I’m pleased to present the inside of the cabinet doors.
I remember when I was little my mom had a list of important phone numbers posted inside of our cabinets and a calendar. It’s a great place to post things where you can see them, yet still keep them hidden from the rest of the world. (And now every time hubby opens the cabinet to get out his meds, his blood sugar testing chart is right there in his face.)
And here’s my favorite part! I have a coupon binder for most of my coupons, but I like to keep a few really good ones out so that I will not forget to use them. I took all the coupons off the refrigerator and placed them in this “handy dandy coupon pocket.”

To make the pocket, I simply took a business envelope and folded back the flap. Then I just placed tape on the edges of the envelope (bottom & sides) and hung it up inside the cabinet. Because the envelope is extra wide you can place a bunch of coupons side by side and overlap them one behind the the other so that you can see several at one time. Here there’s only 6-7 coupons, but I’ve since added a bunch of others to the pack. This is also a great way to keep up with appointment cards.
So there you have it! A solution for decluttering that pesky fridge or bulletin board while taking advantage of all that empty (& hidden) space within your cabinets!

-Jerri

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I’m posting a link to this post at:
It’s So Very Creative hosted by It’s So Very Cheri
Making the World Cuter Monday hosted by Making the World Cuter
Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land
Tackle it Tuesday is hosted by: 5 Minutes for Mom

Filed Under: cleaning, organizing, Work from Home

WAHW: Goal Setting and Scheduling Time in 2010

January 13, 2010 5 Comments
Each new year we make a list of goals or projects for the year, but by March many of these fall by the wayside (if not before then). The key to achieving your new year’s resolutions and completing your projects for the year is to set attainable goals and schedule time to work on all your projects and goals.

Keys to Goal Setting:

1. Set realistic, attainable goals.


2. Set goals that can be easily measured.
-Examples:
* I will post 5 times a week on my blog.
* I will get 50 new followers this month.
*I will get 5 sales a week.
* I will meal plan each week.
*I will try a new recipe each week.

3. Give yourself a time frame or deadline to achieve your goals.
-Examples:
*By the end of the month I will have my first sale.
*By the end of the month I’ll have 10 new craft projects completed.
*I will declutter one closet each week.

4. Schedule time to work on your projects and goals. In other words, treat it like a job. This can be as general or specific as you’d like it to be, but you should make scheduled time for all your endeavors and be consistent.
-Examples:
*I will post on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
*Each morning I will spend two hours working on my blog or networking.
*Each day I will clean one room in the house.
*Each morning I will list new items in my shop.

5. Write down your schedule and/or document your work.
-Keep a planner to write down your schedule and the tasks you want to perform each day.
-In your planner, in a separate notebook, or a on a blog, make a list of what you do each day. This will help you to measure your progress and will help you to stay on task.

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Great Calendar For You: For those of you who have goals to declutter and keep a cleaner house this year, you may want to have a look at this year’s Declutter Calendar over at My Simpler Life. The calender gives you a different task to do each day to help keep your house clean and clutter free. You could also have a look at this calendar and then make your own with your specific needs and tasks in mind.

-Jerri


Filed Under: Business, organizing, planning, Work from Home

Relish! Menu Planning Review & Giveaway!

December 28, 2009 35 Comments

As you all know I love organizing and menu planning. Needless to say, when I got an email asking me to review the Relish! Meal Planning Website, I was really exited, and now I’m excited to be giving away a free membership in honor of my 500th post!

Meal planning can really help you to save money, and it will save you a lot of time. This website would be a great tool for everyone whether you’re a beginner or an expert at menu planning, and it’s very user friendly.

There are a lot of great features that I think you’ll find very helpful. On your main screen, you’ll find a list of meals to choose from, and each week there’s a different list of recipes featured here. The page instructs you to choose 5 meals and one dessert from the menus. On this page there is also a list titled “Dime and Dash,” which gives you a list of quick and inexpensive express meals to choose from.

And on this page you’ll also see a section for favorites. Each week when you create a menu, you can choose to add certain meals to your favorites section, and once these are added to favorites, they will always appear on your menu planning screen. I really like this feature because it allows you to throw a couple of things that you know your family loves in with the new recipes that you select from the menu screen.

Another great feature on the main menu screen is the Recipe Legend. Beside each meal is a symbol which describes what kind of meal it is, and the legend tells you what each of the symbols mean. For example, KF means Kid Friendly. C equals Crockpot. LC means lower calorie. And M means Morning Prep.

And of course, the site is equipped with all the recipes you need. On the main menu planning screen, just click on a meal, and you’ll be directed to a printer friendly page with all the recipes that you need for a particular meal. And to make this feature even better and more useful to you, there is a pull down menu where you can select how many people the meal will be for, and the recipe cards that you view will be adjusted to fit the number of people in your family. Super!


Another favorite feature of mine is the shopping list component. Once you’ve selected the meals you want for your menu, click “create custom menu” and the site directs you to a shopping list. In the first column is a list of “Items You Need but May Already Have.” (Things like milk, butter, and spices.) And then all your other shopping list items are organized into food groups, and the shopping list even includes the quanity of ingredients you need. (So if you’ve selected 2 different meals that include chicken breasts, and you have 4 family members, your shopping list will have 8 chicken breasts on it.) The shopping list even goes as far as to tell you how many eggs you need, or what size package of chili powder you’ll need.

Now let’s say you go on the main menu screen, and none of the featured recipes sound good to you. No problem! Just visit the Menu Archive, and you’ll find a ton of other options, or pull up your Past Menus. But let’s say, you already have a list of favorite recipes on rotation in your house, and you want to add these recipes in with one or two of the Relish recipes each week. No problem again! If you have a favorite recipe, just submit it to Relish, and they will convert it to a meal and put it up with entrees in your favorites list.

Another part of this website that I found very interesting was the “This & That Section.” This section includes a list of special menus. They feature menus for special occasions like Dinner Parties & BBQs, Superbowl, Lunches, Gourmet Potluck, Easter Brunch, Christmas, and Mother’s Day. And the section also includes a list of fun menus for kids of all ages. The list included several movie themed menus including Ratatoille, Kung Fu Panda, Ice Age, and even Twilight. Sounds fun, huh? And I think this section could make your party planning a breeze.

I’m excited to be giving away a One Year Membership to Relish! to one Simply Sweet Home reader. This is a $58.80 value!

Giveaway is Now Closed.

Additional Entries:

-Bonus Entry: Tell me something you’d like to see more of on this blog in 2010 (recipes, organizing, crafts, party planning, deals, etc.)

–One entry for following me publicly on blogger.

-One entry for joining my feedblitz mailing list, or 2 entries if you are already a member prior to this giveaway.

-One entry for subscribing in a reader.

-One entry for following or subscribing to my new business blog.

-One entry for following me on twitter and/or becoming a fan on facebook.

-One entry for tweeting about this giveaway.

-Two entries for writing about this giveaway on your blog and linking back to Simply Sweet Home.

(Just leave comments for each additional entry, and please leave a user name/link or something so that I can verify. Thanks!)

Other Rules:

-Don’t forget, if you don’t have a blog or a profile with a visible email address, please include your email address in your comment so that I can contact you if you win. (Can’t stress this enough!)


-Jerri

MckLinky Blog Hop

Click here to see the entire Giveaway Blog Hop List….

Filed Under: Giveaways, menu plan Monday, organizing, Sponsors

Organizing Round-Up: Command Central

September 1, 2009 3 Comments
This month at Org Junkie the organizing round-up theme was Command Central. For this round-up I’m sharing my desk and office area. This is where I do all my blogging, home business work, and general home office tasks. These pictures aren’t the greatest in the world, and I didn’t take a picture of each individual item, but I did try to explain everything in detail….so you should get the general idea.

I just love my desk! In the upper left hand corner is a place to put books/papers/files. I keep all of my business files in binders, so this is a perfect place to keep the current files. On the bottom left there’s a few photo albums.

On the bottom right I have drawers for some of my office supplies, and above these I have a green bin that is perfect place to keep notebooks and papers I’m using so that they don’t end up all over my desk top. And on top of the desk itself I have a couple of different organizers for writing utentils and supplies (a couple of which are pictured in this post).

The bottom drawer of the desk is used to store supplies. I know it looks cluttered, but if you look closely you can see that all the items are actually organized into little slots.


And the beige-colored two-drawer organizer is used for more supplies. In one drawer I keep markers and highlighters and scissors.

And the other drawers contains post-it flags (my favorite item!), my trusty calculator, paper clips & binder clips, and markers.

And here are all my current binders:

And here a couple of office supply organizers:

And another for my planner, notepads, flags, stamps, etc:
This little drawer is handy place to keep the checkbook, stamps, business cards, etc.


And near my desk is my “file center.”


I keep my “older business binders” and some other stuff in the cabinet on the lower left, and the bottom of the cabinet is actually a file drawer, which is big enough for all of important papers, paid bills, and so forth.

The organizer on top of the brown file cabinet is one of my favorite organizers. Inside the drawers, I keep extra check books, mailing labels, and envelopes. On the top left of the cabinet, I have all kinds of printer paper, and the right side is a good place to put binders, books, and papers.

The black cabinet is used to store manuals & warranty information for stuff that we buy, as well as computer software. The plastic drawers contain scrapbook paper and stickers.

And the black box on top is my temporary file box. Basically this where all my papers are stored temporarily until I get chance to file them, or pay a bill, or do whatever I need to do with the papers. This tempoary file box is a life saver when it comes to taking care of paper clutter. I did a post on it back in January. If you’re interested, here’s a link to that post: Secret To My Success with Filing

-Jerri


Filed Under: organizing

Tips for a Successful Yard Sale: Misc Tips

July 26, 2009 Leave a Comment

Misc. Tips

-If you have friends, family members, or neighbors that want to have a yard sale, you should consider having your sales together. This way you’ll have more items at your sale, which means people will be more likely to stop, and if you’re advertising in the paper, it’s a plus to be able to say that you are having a “2 family (or more) yardsale.”

-Or if you know that another family on your street will be having a yard sale, you could consider coordinating yours around the same time. If people are looking in the paper for yard sales to hit, they’ll be more likely to go to areas where there is more than one sale going on.

-For quick pricing, buy the price stickers that are pre-made. It saves so much time.

-If you really want to get rid of stuff, plan to do price mark downs. If you’re having a two day sale, do your mark downs at the end of the first day. And if you’re having a one day sale, do your mark downs around lunch time.

-Be sure that you are up at least an hour before your sale will start. Even if you put a note in your ad that says, “no early birds,” you are bound to have some. Many yard sale enthusiasts leave out before the sun is up to start hitting yard sales. It sounds crazy, but it’s true.

Display Tips:

-If you can’t get racks for clothes, you could hang clothes on your front porch or get some wire to create a temporary clothesline.

-If you don’t have enough table space, try moving your items closer together and place big items somewhere else, perhaps on the ground.

-There are many things you can use to substitute for a lack of table space. If you have a pickup truck, you can put the tail gate down and place items on the bed of the truck.

-Lay out an old bed sheet on the ground, and you can put a lot of toys, books, and other items on it.

-If you’re selling any tables, you could use them to display other items temporarily.

-If you have a lot of books to sell, consider bringing one of your bookshelves outside to display your books.

-Boxes and tubs that your items were once stored in, can be used to make temporary tables. Just lay few on them on their sides, and you’re good to go.

Finding Things to Sell:

-The obvious source for items to sell is the attic, garage, and basement, but you should look around the entire house for items that may be unnecessary and better off in a yard sale.

-Always go through your closets. Pull out any clothes that don’t fit or that haven’t been worn in a long time. Do the same with shoes.

-Go through kitchen cabinets and drawers and discard any items that never get used. Don’t forget to go through the “junk drawer” if you have one.

-Go through the toys in your child’s room and get rid of things that never get played with. (Tell your kids who may object to this, that if you find some things to get rid of, then there will be money to buy new stuff in the future.)

-Look around your home office. Get rid of unnecessary supplies, books, magazines, etc.

-Consider de-cluttering your bathroom. If you have a lot of extra shower gels, bubble baths, and body mists that never get used, sell them.

-And of course, if you have your own etsy shop or a home based business, this is a good time to put some of the items that you sell out on display. Even though it’s a yard sale, and people are expecting to pay cheap prices, if they see something they like that’s brand new, they will be willing to buy it. (Don’t forget to have some business cards available.)

-You should also consider selling refreshments. Take out a cooler and fill it full of ice and bottled waters. You could also sell sodas if you’d like. And if you have kids, you can let them run their own lemonade stand. You can also offer homemade snacks like cookies, brownies, or cake slices.

-Jerri


Filed Under: making money, organizing
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